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Chapter 1
Red. It was all red.
The portal, the fire. My magic. Mrak’s.
My dreams were nothing but a fitful storm of crimson, full of flames and red-toned skies. So much so that when a sudden burst of wakefulness sent me lurching upright and twisting off a bed, my line of sight directly even with an open window, I thought I was still dreaming. A dream within a dream about a hellish landscape that looked like someone had stuck Mars in a nightmare.
My chest heaved as a cold sweat beaded along my brow. I pressed my hand over my racing heart that thumped so hard against my ribcage, I was sure it’d escape.
A deep crimson sky sat above tall, deep-red mountains dotting the horizon as far as I could see. A strong breeze filtered through the open window, lifting my long, blonde hair away from my sweaty forehead. I squeezed my eyes against the wind and tried to focus on my breathing. But with my brown eyes closed, more visions swam.
Blood. Fighting. Cassius’s vampire feeder community going up in flames. His death.
So much death.
Vampires. Demon hunters.Innocents.
My heart seized and I gasped for air. I’d killed innocents. I’d killedvictims.
I had a vague sense that Mrak had exerted full control over my body at some point, or maybe I’d just lost control of the extra magic he’d lent me. Butmycontrol had been lost all the same, and innocents had died because of it. People like me, who’d been victim to a vampire’s feeding community and all the daily torture that came with it.
My eyes snapped open as a haunting final image swam through my mind: a spinning red portal, and a crimson landscape beyond. The same landscape stared back at me through large windows now.
Kithonia.
It must have been. But why I was here,howI’d gotten here…
Death.
It all came careening back to me. Leif had tried to warn me, and even knowing what I knew, I’d still run straight into Mrak’s open arms. His selfish plans.
But innocents dying had never been part of that plan, or our agreement.
“You broke the rules,” I whispered, hoping he was nearby. If Mrak wouldn’t surface in my mind and around my body now that he’d gotten what he’d wanted, then I didn’t know what would make him appear. Hurt curled my hands into fists. I’d willingly accepted more power to exact revenge, and I’d been absolutely happy to serve so many vampires their deaths. But it was like an entirely different power had come over me halfway through Cassius’s compound—one that had demanded blood, death, and revenge. A heady call, tempting me into the dark.
And worse, I’dlikedit.
“Mrak,” I snapped. “Where are you? We need to talk.”
So many had died. So many.
But the longer the silence dragged on, the more I came to accept the empty air around me, devoid of his presence on my skin and in my mind, my anger and hurt dwindled to worry. And then, to fear.
ThiswasKithonia, right? It… had to be. Because if not, where the hell was I? And regardless of where, how the hell had I gotten here? I remembered a portal opening but not walking through it. Mrak must have taken over my body.
As the thought made its way through my head, a door opened on the other side of the room. Only when I turned to look at it did I take in the rather empty space I’d been left in. I sat upright in a lush bed, but the room only had a few pieces of black wood furniture otherwise. A dresser, a large mirror, and some wall sconces. One large area rug in shades of red. Everything in here seemed extra large, meant for someone much taller than I.
I pulled the soft sheets closer around my body—an instinctive reaction. Beneath, I wore the jeans, tank top, and jacket I had when I’d entered Cassius’s compound. How much time had passed since then?
For a moment, my heart caught in my throat as what I thought could be nothing more than shadow passed through the door. My breath stopped. My earlier confusion and anger met with fear when a hulking, shadowy form entered the room. Seven feet tall—maybe taller—and dark-skinned. Shadows swirling around each limb and trailing behind the figure like a cloak. Six crimson, glowing eyes set above a smiling mouth. Hands that ended in large claws carried a tray with what appeared to be off-color fruits and cheese, as well as a steaming cup of some kind of liquid.
This image clashed with everything else alien around me. Although I immediately recognized Mrak from the times I’d seen his true from during throes of passion, even though I understood that obviously Mrak would have been the one to take me to Kithonia, my mind refused to piece together the new reality literally standing before me.
Mrak was whole again. His own entity.
The physical form before me washisform, and the emptiness of his presence was not because he was ignoring me, but because Mrakwas here.
My lips parted, but sound caught in my throat. After everything that had happened yesterday in Cassius’s feeder community, after waking up in Kithonia, my mind simply could not process fast enoughthisturn of events. But my breath hitched at the sight of Mrak here, monstrous, massive, andmine.
